Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, the law enforcement official leading the Nancy Guthrie investigation in Arizona, is facing a $1.35 million federal lawsuit after a jail inmate alleged that deputies exposed him to Covid-19 inside Pima County Jail. Christopher Michael Marx filed the case in the US District Court for the District of Arizona on March 5, naming Nanos and his department as defendants.
Nancy Guthrie Sheriff Chris Nanos hit with $1M lawsuit from Arizona inmatehttps://t.co/csFCoJ7mwGpic.twitter.com/uqJ7msafUZ
For context, the lawsuit has arrived while Nanos and his office are already under pressure over the stillunresolved disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother ofTodaypresenter Savannah Guthrie. Newsweek and other outlets reported thatNanos has been criticised over how the inquiry has been handled, while a separate New York Post report quoted Sgt. Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, as saying thecase had become an 'ego case' for the sheriff.
Marx's complaint, as described by Newsweek and the New York Post, centres on a deputy who was allegedly assigned to work both a quarantined jail unit and Marx's own unit. Marx said one inmate in the other unit had Covid-19 and claimed the deputy moved back and forth between the two areas, including at mealtimes, without properly sanitising himself.
In the filing, Marx wrote that 'this deputy was going back and forth working both units' and that his own unit was locked down because the same deputy was covering both. He also alleged that the officer did not 'wipe down his body' before moving between units, leaving him repeatedly in danger.
That allegation matters because Marx is not merely complaining about poor procedure. He is accusing the sheriff's office of exposing inmates to a serious health risk inside a closed facility, where choices made by staff can have immediate consequences. In his filing, he said the conduct 'put my life in jeopardy' and added, 'I could have died.'
The legal claim goes further than the underlying Covid allegation. According to the reports, Marx argues that Nanos and the department violated Article Two of the Arizona Constitution, described as the state's Declaration of Rights, through what he characterises as a threat to his safety and cruel and unusual punishment.
Nancy Guthrie's neighbor said she saw a mystery man outside her home in the weeks before Guthrie's disappearance. "He was kind of hunched over... he just didn't fit," she tells NewsNation'[email protected]:https://t.co/aCv2Xq7s9dpic.twitter.com/Ho6hEhR972
He is asking for an apology from the sheriff, for an order requiring deputies to disinfect themselves properly when moving between quarantined units, and for $1,350,000 in damages. Newsweek reported that Marx said he wanted the money donated towards housing for formerly homeless people, with six months rent free and, in his words, 'no strings attached.'
That makes the suit unusual in tone as well as in timing. The monetary demand is substantial, but the filing, at least as reported, also reads as an argument about basic jail management and responsibility from the top down.
Source: International Business Times UK
